Victory Chronicles-DAY 1045

A Russian aerial attack on a four-story residential building in the Donetsk regional town of Kramatorsk destroyed the entrance from the fourth to the second floor and a subsequent fire erupted. 

The State Emergency Service reported the incident on Facebook. First responders were able to evacuate five residents from an adjacent building and successfully extinguished the fire that had spread over a 370-square-meter area. Fortunately, there were no casualties or injuries reported. 

A group of 119 Ukrainian high-school students from Mariupol in the Donetsk region, which Russia currently occupies, were taken to Russia for so-called re-education under the guidance of propagandists. 

Such activities are part of the occupiers’ systemic efforts to mold young Ukrainians into a Russian identity, forcing them to bear allegiance to Russia and eradicate their Ukrainian heritage. There have been cases where children have been unable to return to their homes after such trips, indicating that the Kremlin is forcibly abducting them and committing genocide against Ukrainians. The National Resistance Headquarters has promised to identify and punish all those involved in the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has showcased a range of fiber-optic cable-controlled drones, with the aim to introduce this technology to military and future first-person view (FPV) drone operators. 

Several domestic manufacturers displayed over a dozen drone models, some capable of carrying up to 3 kilograms of payload. The demonstration flights were supervised by experienced drone operators who may use this technology on the battlefield. Lt. Col.Yevhen Tkachenko, headof the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Department of the respective ministry’s Innovation Directorate, explained that most of the showcased drones are in the final stage of development and will soon be provided to various military units. Additionally, he stated that these drones will be designed to withstand electronic warfare.

The RAROG unmanned aerial vehicle battalion, part of the 24th Mechanized Brigade, successfully destroyed four tanks and three infantry fighting vehicles in a single day of combat. 

The tanks, identified as T-62s and used by Russian forces during an attack on Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region, were effectively neutralized by the battalion’s FPV drones. Additionally, the soldiers managed to destroy three BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, further demonstrating their capabilities in combat. This successful mission highlights the efficacy and importance of unmanned aerial vehicles in modern warfare, as they can eliminate enemy vehicles with precision and minimal risk to the lives ofsoldiers.

Kyiv’s  decision to not renew its contract to transport Russian gas through its territory will likely significantly impact Russian gas revenues despite Kremlin posturing to the contrary. 

Russian and Ukrainian authorities confirmed that Russian gas ceased flowing through Ukrainian territory as of Jan. 1, and Russian officials and media largely projected confidence that the cessation of gas supplies through Ukraine will harm Europe but not Russia. 

The loss of gas revenue will likely negatively affect Russian state energy operator Gazprom, which has been struggling with decreasing gas revenue from Europe since 2022. Bloomberg News said on Jan. 2 that Gazprom will likely lose $6 billion in yearly gas revenues per year due to the cessation of gas transports through Ukraine. 

The BBC Russian Service noted on Jan. 1 that Gazprom’s main source of income in 2021 came from Russia’s 45 percent share of the European gas market at the time but that Russia now has only one remaining route to export gas to Europe — the TurkStream pipeline that bypasses Ukraine through the Black Sea to Turkey — and that Russian gas currently only accounts for 5 percent of the European market.

The BBC noted that Slovakia and Austria — the final destinations of the blocked Russian gas through Ukraine — have both fully met their energy needs through alternative sources.

The Kremlin’s efforts to project confidence about the cessation of gas transit through Ukraine mirrors its efforts to coerce Europe into authorizing Russian gas transit to Europe through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in Winter 2021–2022, and the Kremlin’s renewed posturing in Winter 2024–2025 likely aim to extract economic or diplomatic concessions from Europe, undermine unity within the European Union (EU), and drive a wedge between the U.S. and EU.

Soldier Valerii Leontiuk, codenamed Viter, was killed by Russian mortar fire while performing a combat mission. The soldier fought his last battle on July 16 near the village of Chuykivka, Sumy region. The defender was 41 years old.

Leontiuk was born in Komsomolsk, now Horishni Plavni, Poltava region. After school, he became a crane operator and driver at Vocational School No. 18. He worked as a driver at various enterprises in the city and abroad. He was fond of cars and liked to repair them. 

During the full-scale invasion, he defended the country as a member of the 119th separate territorial defense brigade. He served as a driver of the 163rd Battalion’s rifle company. He underwent military training in France and became a sapper. He received a certificate of honour for conscientious performance of duty for shooting down drones.

“I grew up in his arms, he was not like an uncle, but like a brother. He was very cheerful, intelligent, brave, clever, fair. He loved to help people. When he joined the army, he was very capable of learning, mastered various types of equipment and weapons. We miss him, we love him and we will never forget him. And we will never forgive,” said his niece Veronika 

The defender was buried on the Alley of Glory at the city cemetery in Horishni Plavni. Leontiuk is survived by his mother Nina Norbertivna, sister Valentyna, niece Veronika and godson Damir.

*Valerii’s story on the Heroes Memorial – a platform for stories about the fallen defenders of Ukraine.

• Zelenskyy: Kursk operation a ‘strong trump card’ in all negotiations
• The Russian Federation deploys 140,000 to 180,000 prisoners in the Russian-Ukrainian war
• Blast wave from Russian drone attack damages Ukrainian parliament buildings
• Ukraine’s General Staff: Ukrainian forces strike Russian command post in Kursk Oblast
• Finland’s Fingrid requests seizure of Russian ‘shadow fleet’ tanker over suspected underwater cable sabotage